The invention achieves tautness in cable movement while the ball is shortly tethered from the cable slide bushing, features not achieved by the earlier Coffee U.S. Pat. No. 1,554,409, in 1925; or by the Anson U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,882 in 1956. Nor is the cable elastic and stretchable substantially coextensive with ball travel as in the Denegree U.S. Pat. No. 3,042,401, 1962. Nor does the upper end of the cable have to be anchored to a necessarily locatable natural object, with ball return by gravity, as in Albert U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,776, 1963. Also only a single cable is required rather than upper and lower cables, as required by Lingbeck U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,521, 1971. Finally, the invention provides a decided improvement in degree of simulation of actual swinging against the force of a thrown baseball due; the live ball rebounding with force after striking any point of a backboard; such backboard, or ample rebound imparting area not being provided by even the latest Adkins U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,286, 1972.
The invention thus relates to a baseball batting practice device that simulates, (upon ball rebound from backboard, as tether slides back along a studiedly prepositioned cable), the arrival of a thrown baseball in confrontation with a batter, this similarity being attained by a particularly calculated combination of structures.
As a particular object, the invention sets out to provide a baseball batting practice device with all parts assembled with tautness, with batted ball of live, resilient material, tethered by a braided cord to a substantially weightless slide bushing which travels a cable between frames, to stop before a backboard of substantial area, which is struck by the ball which rebounds with substantial force to return to location again to be batted.
It is also an important object of the invention to provide a baseball batting practice device of this class which provides a coil spring cage, with springs in such tension as to yield to any slight deflection of the music wire or cable between frames, as such deflection tends to be caused by the slide bushing, braided cord, tethered ball being struck by a batter with an impact in direction other than directly toward the confronting backboard; upon ball rebound the coil springs restoring the music wire to normal straight axis extension.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a baseball batting practice device of this class in which the ball, of live resilient material, is tethered by means of a braided, substantially non-stretchable cord to a substantially weightless slide bushing, lined to minimize sliding friction between the bushing and cable.
It is also a further object of the invention to provide a baseball practice device of this class with spring cage and backboard on similarly constructed frames or uprights provided to permit selective adjustment of spring cage and backboard in elevation, the same adjustments being permitted when spring cage assembly and backboard assembly are switched with relation to frames or uprights.
Other and further objects will be apparent when the invention is considered in connection with the drawings, with views to be briefly described immediately hereinbelow, and to be further described at length in the following details of the specification.